Teleconference on rightsizing: a training report card.

• Author: Kelley, Joseph T.

In February 1995, the GFOA presented a nationwide interactive "Town Meeting via Satellite" in conjunction with the City of Charlotte, North Carolina. Titled "Dialogue on Rightsizing" and based on the December 1994 article in Government Finance Review, the teleconference was designed to bring a more extensive discussion of Charlotte's experiences to as wide an audience as possible. Its purpose was also to encourage GFOA members to acquaint themselves with teleconferencing as a training medium.

The Program and Participants

During the teleconference, Charlotte city officials from a range of functional areas discussed their rightsizing activities and the impacts on city workers and citizens and answered questions posed by viewers who called in on an 800 telephone number specially arranged for this purpose. The dialogue was lively: during the two-hour program, more than 40 calls were aired from sites in 21 states.

The value of teleconferencing technology as a training medium was clearly demonstrated by "Dialogue on Rightsizing." Participants registered 68 sites from 27 states and estimated audiences totalled 1,854 people. Several cities asked permission (which was granted) to broadcast the program over their government channel; this made the actual number of viewers potentially much larger.

The 800 telephone number was designed so that four lines fed from the one number. With this four-line capability, callers from every part of the country had an excellent chance of having their questions answered. Technical reports on line usage show that only eight calls went unanswered in the two hours the show was on the air.

The number of individuals at a site varied greatly - from one person to 154. The largest site was in Fairfax County, Virginia, where officials of the office of management and budget took the lead in encouraging wide participation, including representatives of 15 nearby jurisdictions. Arrangements were had been made at the site for a group discussion of the issues before the teleconference, and participants wrote down their questions, which were phoned in by a single individual.

Accessing the Teleconference

Analysis of how participants accessed the satellite signal for the rightsizing teleconference indicates that this seemingly complicated technology is actually readily available and easily accessed:

* 39 percent of sites had the equipment in-house to access the signal. In fact, all that is needed to access the signal is a satellite...